1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, a printing system, and a computer-readable storage medium which perform image processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a printing system which involves image correction processing such as a print order processing system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-172333, processes are sometimes divided to a plurality of apparatuses so that a load of the processes is distributed.
In many cases, image correction processing includes a series of processes, i.e., first determining whether there is a correction target, second extracting a parameter required for the correction processing, and finally correcting an image with use of the extracted parameter. (The process for determining where there is a correction target may be omissible depending on a type of correction processing.) For example, red-eye correction for correcting red-eye phenomenon (a phenomenon in that eyes of a subject become red in a photograph due to shooting with use of, for example, a flash of a camera) is performed in the following manner. It is determined by face detection whether there is a face in an image. If there is a face, a position and a size of a pupil are extracted as parameters. Then, the reddened pupil is replaced with a color prepared in advance based on the extracted parameters.
A printer discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-172333 is not configured to acquire information indicating, for example, what kind of parameter has been acquired from image data at another apparatus, or what kind of processing has been performed on the image data. Therefore, there is a possibility that the printer may redundantly perform processing that has already been performed at the other apparatus, and it contributes to reduced processing efficiency of the whole system.
Further, in the system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-172333, a customer's personal computer (PC) also performs correction processing to an image acquired by, for example, a digital camera. Since image data input from a digital camera is often already coded into a Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format or the like, such an image needs to be decoded for correction processing. However, repetition of coding and decoding may deteriorate an image quality. Therefore, it is preferable to transmit a corrected image without applying high-compression coding to another image processing apparatus. However, performing image correction at an early stage of a system leads to an increase in a traffic amount between the image processing apparatuses.